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Combined BlogPoll Ballot and the Other Half

Okay. Here it is, such as it is.

SB Nation BlogPoll Top 25 College Football Rankings

Team Speed Kills Ballot - Week 8

Rank Team Delta
1 Oregon Ducks --
2 Auburn Tigers Arrow_up 4
3 LSU Tigers --
4 Boise St. Broncos Arrow_down -2
5 Oklahoma Sooners --
6 Michigan St. Spartans Arrow_up 2
7 TCU Horned Frogs --
8 Alabama Crimson Tide Arrow_up 3
9 Wisconsin Badgers Arrow_up 11
10 Ohio St. Buckeyes Arrow_down -6
11 Arizona Wildcats Arrow_up 4
12 Iowa Hawkeyes Arrow_up 6
13 Missouri Tigers Arrow_up 12
14 Stanford Cardinal Arrow_down -1
15 Utah Utes Arrow_down -3
16 Florida St. Seminoles --
17 Oklahoma St. Cowboys Arrow_up 5
18 Nebraska Cornhuskers Arrow_down -9
19 Mississippi St. Bulldogs --
20 South Carolina Gamecocks Arrow_down -10
21 Texas Longhorns --
22 USC Trojans --
23 Arkansas Razorbacks Arrow_down -9
24 West Virginia Mountaineers --
25 Virginia Tech Hokies --
Dropouts: Nevada Wolf Pack, Michigan Wolverines, Florida Gators, Oregon St. Beavers, Miami Hurricanes

SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings "

 

I think we would all probably like the ballot to end somewhere around No. 20, but that is against the rules.

Ties broken: Ohio State-Arizona, because the ballots agreed on Ohio State but one had Arizona substantially lower than the other; Iowa-Missouri-Stanford, based on which team appeared highest on either ballot; Utah-Florida State, because Year2 had Utah higher, and I prefer it that way anyway; Arkansas-West Virginia, because of the "homerism" bonus and because I still hate West Virginia being ranked; and Virginia Tech got onto the ballot instead of Kansas State, something I'm reluctant about because Kansas State hasn't lost to an FCS team but went with because Tech was the only team both of us ranked.

Arguments against any of that or my half ballot, presented below, now accepted in the comments. As for Year2's half ballot, it's here.

1 Oregon
2 Auburn
3 LSU
4 Oklahoma
5 Michigan State

Most of these teams have at least one quality quality win and some combination of other relatively solid wins. Two of them still haven't faced an FCS team this season, which is obviously a boost to strength of schedule. I'm not sure I really believe in LSU or Oklahoma, but it's hard to rank them much lower when they're still winning the games.

6 Boise State
7 Alabama
8 TCU
9 Wisconsin
10 Missouri

This group includes all but two of the remaining undefeated teams. Boise is beginning to drop down the list as their "other" games come onto the schedule and Oregon State looks worse each week. TCU has pretty much the same problem. Alabama is the best one-loss team and Wisconsin has a great win for the year. Missouri needs to defeat some good teams -- and they get a chance this weekend -- to stay in the Top 10.

11 Stanford
12 Ohio State
13 Florida State
14 Oklahoma State
15 Utah

Oklahoma State and Utah are the remaining undefeated teams, and they have a lot of wins by sometimes impressive scores over less than impressive opponents. Stanford, Ohio State and Florida State are some good one-loss teams that have at least one quality win.

16 Arizona
17 Mississippi State
18 Iowa
19 Nebraska
20 Southern Cal

Yes, I hate ranking Southern Cal, but the win over California was impressive and there aren't a lot of teams that actually deserve to be ranked. Arizona and Iowa are probably better than their resume shows right now and should eventually move up. Mississippi State?!?

21 South Carolina
22 Texas
23 Kansas State
24 Arkansas
25 Virginia Tech

If South Carolina didn't have the win against Alabama, they wouldn't even be close to being ranked right now. Same for Texas and its win against Nebraska. Kansas State still has a few good wins, and Arkansas needs to learn to play defense. As for Virginia Tech ... ugh. I just don't have another team that's a good option right now.

The chart:

Bpbweek8_medium
Click to make it readable.